Thursday

Nov 23, 2017 at 6:14 PMNov 23, 2017 at 8:39 PM

The Franklin and King Philip football rivalry on Thanksgiving has been a bit one-sided in favor of the Warriors over the past few years, and unfortunately for the Panthers Thursday morning was no different.

The Franklin and King Philip football rivalry on Thanksgiving has been a bit one-sided in favor of the Warriors over the past few years, and unfortunately for the Panthers Thursday morning was no different.

Franklin took on a King Philip (11-0) team set to play for the Division 2 Super Bowl against Lincoln-Sudbury at Gillette Stadium next weekend, and used Franklin as a bit of a tuneup, getting a 28-0 shutout win over its rival for its 13th straight win on Thanksgiving Day.

King Philip now also leads the all time series 32-25-2.

"King Philip is a Super Bowl team,” Franklin coach Eian Bain said after his team fell to 3-8. “We've competed with them just about each time we've played them, but there's a reason they're playing in a Super Bowl for the second straight year."

With 5:56 to play in the first quarter King Philip (11-0) jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard quarterback keeper by Brendan Lydon following a Franklin turnover on downs on the first possession of the game.

The game remained 7-0 through the end of the first quarter, but Franklin quarterback Jake Noviello was picked off on the first play of the second quarter by Max Armour, killing a bit of momentum the Panthers had begun to build.

The Warriors went up 14-0 with under a minute left in the half, finishing off an impressive 11-play, 88-yard drive that ended with a Jack Piller 12-yard catch from Lydon.

The game continued to turn against the Panthers when Noviello was picked off on the first play of the Panthers' ensuing drive. Moments later, Lydon hit Dave Morganelli for a 37-yard touchdown to make it 21-0 with just 26 seconds to play before halftime.

"We've just got to compete better," said Bain. "We needed guys to step up today and some did, but we've just got to become a more consistent football team. Not really speaking to today, but overall this season, we competed at a higher level than the one that we played at today."

The Panthers were outgained 192 yards to 101 during the first half, led by 109 rushing yards from Shane Frommer.

With 5:21 to play in the third quarter, the Warriors capped their scoring on a Ryan Halliday 3-yard touchdown run. Not long after that the Warriors began to pull starters from the game in preparation for the Super Bowl next week.

While the loss was a discouraging end to a season that began to show flashes of promise, Bain feels good about the program moving forward.

"I don't think there's any question we're going in the right direction," he said. "Now, we need to figure out how to take that next step forward and learn how to win these games against elite competition."

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